Bolts captain Steven Stamkos has 273 NHL goals. He has two NHL fights. But one of the fights came Sunday, when Stamkos squared off with Bruins king rat Brad Marchand in the first period.

Stamkos dropped the gloves, and his giddy, energized teammates nearly instantly scored a knockout, scoring twice inside of a minute as Stamkos was in the penalty box. No. 91 didn’t register on the score sheet, just in hearts and minds.

“I just felt at that moment, it was the right thing to do,” Stamkos said.

Hockey Night in Canada host George Stroumboulopoulos sits down with Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, New York Rangers forward Rick Nash and Los Angeles Kings defenceman Drew Doughty to talk about their experience in the NHL.

The future of Steven Stamkos has become a hot topic as he approaches unrestricted free agency in 2016.

And during the media session for the 2015 NHL All-Star Game on Friday, Tampa Bay Lightning forward gave one of his strongest indications to date that he's leaning towards staying with the team that drafted him in 2008.

"Yeah I think that's exactly what the plan is," Stamkos told reporters. "Obviously, July 1 you can announce a deal and something hopefully similar to what (Patrick) Kane and (Jonathan) Toews did, sometime after July 1. It's a long ways away. I'm not really focused on that. We haven't really talked about that at all.

Perception is a strange thing. Dallas forward Tyler Seguin has 26 goals and people say he’s been on fire. Same with Rangers’ winger Rick Nash. Tampa captain Steve Stamkos has 25 goals and people say “slow start.”

That’s the cross you bear when you’re 24 and you’ve had a 51 and 60-goal season. The bar is set considerably higher for Stamkos, who has four goals in his last three games, than anybody else in the NHL, save for maybe Alex Ovechkin who has had a “slow start” with his 22 goals, but is an eye-popping plus 10 under new coach Barry Trotz after being minus 35 last year for Adam Oates in Washington.

Stamkos has only had five multi-goal outings in the first 45 Tampa games, so people have questioned if his hands have gone a little cold. In one eight-game stretch from Dec. 11 through Dec. 27 he only scored in two games. But, the longest he’s gone without a goal is three games. Mere mortals would die for, uh, those troubles. Oiler winger Jordan Eberle, who has the best hands on that team, has had a five, seven and nine-game drought this season.

A year later, and 15 games into this season, Stamkos still feels the effects of the injury with constant minor reminders, whether it’s a slight pain in the leg or some discomfort when he gets out of bed every day.

There remains uncertainty if the leg will ever be back to normal.

“That’s kind of the million dollar question, is it ever going to feel the same way as before,’’ Stamkos said. “It may never and I’m hoping one day I’ll wake up and it just feels like a regular leg. But I don’t know if that’s going to happen.

“Your body has a new norm now, and that’s been an adjustment. But mentally, it’s been night and day compared to where I ended the season off last year to where I am at this point the season.’’

When Lightning captain Steven Stamkos takes the ice tonight for his first exhibition action, he'll do so looking - and feeling - more like his old self.

Stamkos said his surgically-repaired right leg feels much better than he did late last season, when he returned after missing 45 games following surgery to repair a broken tibia. While tonight's game against the Stars will provide a better barometer, he's already seen a big difference in practice and scrimmages.

"I think it's that first couple steps, that explosiveness that is a big part of my game," Stamkos said. "I definitely feel a lot more comfortable in that regards. We'll have to wait and see until the game, but in practices and scrimmages the skating is an asset of mine and I thought I was kind of a step back last year even when I did some back. I'm feeling good, feeling confident and mentally I'm in a much better state as well. You don't realize how much that has an affect on your game until you go through an injury like that and you find yourself protecting that spot a lot of instead of thinking maybe the next play, which I usually do. I'm in a better state that way as well."

Stamkos’ right leg, which was broken in a horrific on-ice accident on Nov. 11 in Boston, feels stronger than it did at the end of last season, when Tampa Bay was swept out of the playoffs by Montreal in the first round.

One of two screws was removed from the leg last month, he said. And though he skated in Toronto last week, Stamkos came to Tampa early for additional treatment and to gain more strength in the leg. There are no concerns about his leg, he said.

““It’s amazing, even week after week, how much better it feels and how much closer it’s getting to where it was before the injury,” he said.

LeBron James going home to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers led to speculation about whether a star NHL player might do the same in the near future.

Naturally, Steven Stamkos was at the centre of that speculation. The Tampa Bay Lightning captain and Markham, Ont., native could be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2016, and the allure of playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs could be there.

"We'll see what happens. It's a couple years away," Stamkos said Wednesday. "Right now I'm focused on what I have to do to win in Tampa, and I think we've really established ourselves as a team that can compete in upcoming years.

"For me, that's the important thing is getting a chance to win. It looks like we're going to have that chance for a couple years."

It was not clear whether Stamkos went through a concussion protocol off the ice. It was not clear whether he met with a doctor. Lightning coach Jon Cooper suggested Stamkos received medical clearance before he returned for the third period, but he was vague.

“I can’t comment on the particulars,” Cooper said, in the Times. “For a coach, it’s ‘can the player go or can he not?’ We take every precaution on the side of the player not playing. But everyone said he’s good to go, Steven said he’s good to go, and he got stronger as the game went on, so he was fine.”

TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning have named Steven Stamkos the 10th captain in franchise history today, the team unveiled prior to their game versus the Buffalo Sabres.

“Steven Stamkos was destined to be the leader of our team,” head coach Jon Cooper said. “The fact that it’s happening now just puts us one step closer to achieving our ultimate goal and that is trying to win the Stanley Cup.”

TAMPA BAY – Tampa Bay Lightning Center Steven Stamkos will not be able to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman announced today. Stamkos underwent a CT Scan (which offers a three-dimensional view of the bone) this afternoon and then met with Lightning Medical Director Ira Gutentag, who was unable to clear Stamkos for game participation at this time. Rehabilitation with the Lightning training staff will continue and he will be reevaluated in 2-3 weeks.

Stamkos will have an X-ray when the team returns to Tampa after Tuesday's game at Minnesota. There will be discussions with Lightning doctors, Tampa Bay and Team Canada general manager Steve Yzerman and executives from Hockey Canada.

Stamkos has said he wants to play in one or both of the Lightning's home games leading up to the Olympics. But he also said not playing Thursday against the Maple Leafs or Saturday against the Red Wings would not preclude him from going to Sochi.

Here is what could:

"I don't feel I'm where I need to be in order to play in a game yet," Stamkos said Friday, his last meeting with reporters. "You have to listen to your body. It has gotten better, and there's less and less pain every time I get on the ice. But there's still discomfort."

Stamkos, who had a titanium rod inserted in the tibia, said he hopes the pain will at least become "manageable."

If he can’t go for the Lightning in a game before heading to Russia, he shouldn’t go.

I’d rather break his heart than have him break something else, even in the name of Canada....

It’s just three weeks until hockey begins in Sochi.

The Lightning appear playoff bound.

Lightning GM Steve Yzerman can’t listen to Stamkos’ heart.

It’s complicated, since Yzerman is also GM for Team Canada. By the way, Y needs to drop one of those gigs after these Games. We’ve seen from the Marty St. Louis Olympic snub that Yzerman is in an awkward position. Now it’s stranger still with Stamkos’ situation.

Lightning star Steven Stamkos shed his red jersey in favor of a yellow one for Saturday's morning skate, signaling he's been cleared for light contact.

Stamkos, who suffered a broken right tibia Nov. 11, had hoped he'd be able to take the next step in his rehab after a Thursday x-ray was encouraging. And Stamkos appeared to enjoy his new status, playfully shoving teammate Marty St. Louis near the boards Saturday morning, even knocking the captain to the ice.

Stamkos' goal is to return for one of the Lightning's home games (Feb. 6, Feb. 8) before the Olympic break. But coach Jon Cooper tempered the excitement over the color of the All-Star's jersey, saying Stamkos is "a ways away" from being cleared to play.

Though Stamkos has been back on skates for the past month, and in full gear since Jan. 2 in Calgary, Thursday marked the first time he was on the ice from the beginning of a session, instead of primarily before or after his teammates were done with formal practice.

“That was huge,” Stamkos said of being out for the full morning skate. “It’s not a full practice, but to be able to go out and not have to go on early or wait until the end to go on, Mike (Poirier, assistant medical trainer) talked last night that I wanted to go out and try it. It’s the best it’s every felt, and we are working extremely hard, but mentally it is a big hurdle to jump over to know that you can at least keep up with the guys, going on a two-on-one with Marty (St. Louis), but it does feel great.”

About the only disappointing moment is when Stamkos did not take part in power-play drills toward the end of the skate, a point Stamkos jokingly made to head coach Jon Cooper.

In the summer of 2016, unless he extends his contract between now and then, Stamkos will be an unrestricted free agent. There are those who believe that playing for the Leafs would be a dream for Stamkos, although you often hear that about this player or that player.

Still, the attraction of going home helped the Leafs sign David Clarkson, whether you like that one or not.

The Leafs would like to believe that the Markham-born Stamkos may be thinking something along the lines of the way Zach Parise was thinking in the summer of 2012 when he targeted the Minnesota Wild, hardly an NHL powerhouse, as his destination of choice so he co

Of course, Stamkos wouldn't be free for another two summers, which gives Tampa and owner Jeff Vinik loads of time to get him locked down.

Skating straight ahead, Steven Stamkos is all good. Doing plyometrics in the gym and taking force on his right leg as it hits the ground? Not a problem.

It is when the Lightning's star center tries crossover skating or accelerating from a stop that he feels the most discomfort in the leg broken Nov. 11 at Boston.

"It's the torquing, when all the weight is on that leg and you're turning, that's the stuff that bothers me most," Stamkos said Monday after joining teammates on the ice at the end of the morning skate. "It's anytime there's a pass that's a little bit in front and you have to make that sudden movement. I'm not at a point where I'm 100 percent comfortable with that right now."

Even so, he said, "Each time I've been on the ice, for the most part, I've felt better each time."

Is Lightning star Steven Stamkos targeting a Feb. 6 return from the broken right tibia he sustained Nov. 11 at Boston? That was the report this week from Darren Dreger of Canada's TSN.

Asked if he is targeting a specific date for a return, Stamkos on Wednesday would not say but offered this: "It’s impossible to tell, really. I mentioned in my press conference I’d love to come back and play a couple games and be able to play in the Olympics. That’s my goal. You have to have a goal and you work towards your goal."

If Stamkos does return by Feb. 6, he could play two games for the Lightning before the Olympic break. On playing for Canada at the Sochi Olympics, he said it won't happen "unless I am 100 percent."

"To be able to do what I'm doing now and almost comeback to a normal life, being able to just move around on your own, I'm definitely happy with that. I'd say I've overcome the initial shock and frustration and disappointment, and now it's what do I have to do to get back as quick as possible. But obviously as smart as possible."

-Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning at a press conference today. A bit more on Stamkos (who is not using crutches) from the CP at TSN..

Is there any chance Nail Yakupov ends up being traded out of Edmonton?

Dreger: Not this year. The Oilers have no intentions of trading him. What they need from him, given the fact that he's played 65 NHL games, is to figure it out. He needs to start being a better defensive player, he needs to mature a little bit, work on the issues in his game and be ready for the time when Ales Hemsky is traded by the Oilers so he can take a more predominant role. As for the Igor Larionov story, Craig MacTavish spoke to him and there are no issues there.

... Now, he’s gone, with 14 goals (riding a six-game scoring streak), with 23 points–a guy who figured in44 percent of his team’s goals. Tampa talked a good game about other guys stepping up, but Marty St. Louis, bless his soul, is 38. He is more of a passer than a shooter. Val Filppula, who played in Pavel Datsyuk’s shadow in Detroit, is now the default No. 1 centre there. Little Ryan Johnson moves up to No. 2. Good players but Stamkos is a great player, a great player who was hurt on a back-checking mission against Boston defenceman Dougie Hamilton–an awful visual on YouTube.

Stamkos’s injury likely opens the doors wide-open for Olympic team berths. Canada has a couple of natural RWs in St. Louis and Corey Perry who will probably be in Sochi but that’s it. Centres were moving over. Maybe centre/winger Claude Giroux in Philly pops back into the Olympic picture now, same with the versatile Patrick Sharp, who’s always under the radar. Some guys who didn’t get summer orientation invites like Patty Marleau and Jamie Benn and Joffrey Lupul might now get a longer look.

There’s only one Stamkos though and today he’s sitting in a hospital bed with a plate or a rod and screws in his broken leg. It’s a crying shame, for him, and all hockey fans.

TAMPA BAY – Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos underwent successful surgery this afternoon in Boston to stabilize a fracture in his right tibia. He is expected to return to Tampa on Thursday to begin rehabilitation immediately, the team announced. A prospective timetable has not yet been set for his return to the ice.

added 6:22pm,

No official timeline on Stamkos post-surgical recovery for broken tibia but three months seems to be the unofficial prognosis.

What a brutal day for GM Steve Yzerman, impacted on two fronts: most importantly on his NHL team but also on the Canadian Olympic team he is assembling. In fact, Yzerman was slated to assemble the Team Canada management staff Tuesday night in Toronto to update their player list for the Olympic team.

You don’t replace Stamkos, not on the Lightning (where Stamkos participated in 44 percent of his team’s goals scored this season), but not even on Team Canada.

Short of losing Sidney Crosby, not sure there’s a more damaging piece of news for Team Canada.

It is compounded by the fact Rick Nash -- another preseason lock to make the Olympic team -- has not returned to play since his early season concussion, although he’s skated of late so perhaps there will be good news soon.

Still, a sobering day on so many fronts, but most of all it’s the fans around the league who lose out the most, deprived of the game’s top goal scorer.

“It’s a big loss, but you know, we’ve been winning as a team and we’re going to have to find a way to continue doing that,’’ Lightning captain Marty St. Louis said. “We’re going to have to raise our game collectively. You don’t replace Stammer, but the guys are going to have to step up.’’

TAMPA BAY – Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos was diagnosed with a broken tibia in his right leg today in Boston, vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman announced.

“At this point Steven will be out indefinitely,” Yzerman said. “The medical staff in Boston, in consultation with our team physicians, has made the decision to surgically repair the injury. The procedure is expected to take place tomorrow morning. The biggest concern for me, and the rest of the Lightning, is that decisions are made in Steven’s best long-term interest, and we feel this is the appropriate course of action.”

He could always score and, for a long time, that was all the world saw in him. From the time Barry Melrose was as wrong about Stamkos as any coach has ever been about a player, he has been an offensive force. He was a better skater than most realized, and he had great hands, and he had terrific vision. It was as if the puck turned into a grenade whenever it touched Stamkos' stick, and the explosion always happened in the back of the net.

The newest version of Stamkos has been improved, however. These days, he is a more complete player. He can still score (13 goals in 15 games), but at the ripe old age of 23, Stamkos has become a wiser player, more mature....

Wouldn't you expect this? Great players in their early 20s tend to get better. They figure things out as they go, and the parts of hockey that didn't seem as important suddenly matter a great deal. They grow into their bodies, and they grow into their sport. They get it.

And so it is that Stamkos has spent this year challenging his own reputation. Yes, he is still the scorer from the highlights. These days, however, he is more. Honestly.

In the short film, which lasts around two minutes, Stamkos portrays fictional hockey player Shawn Warford, who gets traded by his father/coach and goes on to score five goals with his dad on the opposing bench. The film also features Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle — who did his own Moment Zero ad portraying Kevin Walker — and TSN television personality Bob McKenzie.

Being in that situation gave Stamkos a new appreciation for actors and those involved with filming movies and television.

“It’s amazing that it’s that long of a process,’’ he said of the 8½-hour day to shoot two commercials. “There’s a lot of sitting around, a lot of waiting, moving of camera angles and stuff like that and for (90 seconds) of actual video. So I have a lot of respect for actors and what they have to go through to make a movie and that’s a two-hour movie.

“It’s an unbelievably long and sometimes painful process, but in the end the professionals that edit it, they make it look good.’’

“On the bench after that goal, we were kind a looking at each other just thinking, ‘Did he really do that?’ It’s a shame when he was in Detroit with Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Lidstrom for all those years, because not a lot of people talked about him. But he is getting a chance to show what you can do and it’s impressive.’’

-Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Valtteri Filppula. More on "Flip" from Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune.

One of the league's scoring leaders, Tampa Bay Lighting center Steven Stamkos has evolved since breaking into the league as a first-overall draft pick in 2008. Stamkos tells ESPNNewYork.com's Katie Strang about his maturation as a player, the advice he's received from teammate Martin St. Louis and which baseball team has his heart (sort of) in this week's installment of the New York Minute.

STRANG: What's your take on this team as we near the midpoint of the season?

STAMKOS: I think we got off to a great start. Obviously, we took advantage of the good schedule in our favor, a lot of home games, catching teams back-to-back, [we] got off to a 6-1 start. Since then, it's been a little bit of a different story. Went through some tough times there -- I think we lost five, six in a row. But I think we're really starting to find the identity of our team. I think we've been playing a lot better. [We're] not necessarily getting the results we want in terms of points, but the process is ongoing and at least we're seeing some signs of life and seeing signs of guys picking up on things we're going over as a team, whether it's on practice or video. We're getting there. We've played some pretty good teams lately. When we're in the game, we've got to find ways to beat them if we want to be a good team, but the process has started to take its course, I think.

It's not easy to put Gary Roberts out of commission. Steven Stamkos almost did it in with one powerful squeeze this summer.

Stamkos, the Tampa Bay Lightning center, was playfully roughhousing with Roberts, a man 24 years his elder but one many consider to be among the toughest to ever play in the NHL. Stamkos put a vicelike grip on Roberts' bicep, and Roberts' arm started to throb, threatening to at least temporarily ruin his plans for golf that day.

Instead of anger, all Roberts felt was pride. After all, Roberts and his training methods are ultimately responsible for Stamkos' surge in strength during the past four years.

He didn’t do it on Thursday. But sometime soon—perhaps as soon as Saturday night against Carolina—Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos is poised to join an exclusive club.

Stamkos is two goals away from becoming the NHL’s first 50-goal scorer this season. When he does, he’ll join an elite group of six players who’ve had multiple 50-goal seasons before their 23rd birthday (he turned 22 on Feb. 7). Wayne Gretzky did it four times; Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux, Joe Nieuwendyk and Alex Ovechkin each had two seasons with at least 50 goals before turning 23—though Bossy, Nieuwendyk and Ovechkin had the disadvantage of not playing in the NHL until after their 20th birthdays.

What was once familiar is suddenly foreign. This season *Steven) Stamkos has scored precisely once on his vaunted one-timer. And the obvious question is: Why?

“Teams take that away,” Stamkos said Monday. “You have to go to different areas, go to the net. Screens, tips, deflections, rebounds — it’s just about evolving your game.”

It’s not that Stamkos isn’t finding the scoresheet. Coming into Tuesday night’s tilt with the Maple Leafs, the Tampa Bay Lightning centre has 11 goals and 19 points in 19 games, which put him on pace for a 47-goal campaign and spoke highly of his expanded arsenal.

While Stamkos said he’d welcome more goals from the comfy confines of his beloved left faceoff dot — where he has, in previous seasons, been at his deadliest, especially in 5-on-4 situations — he’s not expecting anything to come easily.

In my last article on left wings, a few of you mentioned the positional dilemmas that we seem to face when drafting forwards. This is a great point, since not only do position eligibilities change from league to league (eg. Yahoo/ESPN/CBS), but also from year to year. As well, we also need to keep our eye on forwards with dual position eligibility.

The third baseman had been smoking a cigarette, the third base coach sipping a can of Keystone Light, when the crack of a bat sent a ball hurtling somewhere overhead and into the late-night dark.

Out of the left-field shadows popped Steven Stamkos, the NHL all-star, tracking the drive against the inky summer sky.

He broke quickly, sprinted hard, leaped high, and opened his glove to catch the slicing liner.

“He’s pretty good, huh?” said someone in the darkness.

Yes, said a fellow witness, he’s pretty darn good.

This was the scene at Centennial Park in Markham this week, when Stamkos, the video-game cover boy for the Tampa Bay Lightning, made one of his occasional appearances as an outfielder for the Green Beys, a team in the Markham Four-Pitch Hardball League.

from Damian Cristodero of Lightning Strikes at the St. Petersburg Times,

On re-igniting his scoring touch: It’s there, but going through that I’ve learned what to do when you’re in those situations, and even in the summer I was watching some of those games when you’re struggling a little bit and you learn from it. That’s all you can do, so now you know how to deal with those things. … It’s a lot about confidence and I feel confident with the work I did over the summer, and skill-set wise we had a great run last year and I just want to build on that and help this team get to a championship.

On players being accountable for head shots: At the end of the day I’m not saying every one of those hits that resulted in a concussions was avoidable. It’s going to happen. It’s a contact sport its so fast you’re going to get them. But in order to minimize them I think as a player you have to be aware of the situation on the ice. We’re trying with the head shot rule. I don’t know what other rules you can put in to prevent it. Guys have to be responsible. ... You look at some of the head shots, guys are blatantly putting their elbows up. A guy’s back is turned and you hit him into the boards. That comes down to common sense. We all know how to deliver a clean body check. You have to be accountable for your actions on the ice. With some of the suspensions getting a little steeper, guys are going to realize that if they do that, they’re not going to get away with it.

Just some of a few quick things today, as EA’s newest NHL 12 blog, which was supposed to be released “soon” has yet to surface. So instead I bring you some old news I should have reported a long time ago, and some a recent tidbit of video from yesterday.

Is Sidney Crosby still the number one pick in fantasy leagues?
Mere hours after my posting suggesting that Crosby should be the first overall pick, Josh Rimer’s tweet about Crosby’s unlikeliness to be in the Penguins’ lineup to start the season was making the rounds.

Stamkos is the newest NHL’s multi-millionaire, having signed a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and is well aware that sudden wealth can change a person and can change an athlete.

“I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by so many great people that won’t let me get that way,” Stamkos said on Thursday. “It’s part of who I am, it’s how I’ve grown up, the morals that I’ve lived by. I think the first person you look at is your parents and how they raised me.”